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Appendix B
Motor-Power Board
The Pioneer 2 and PeopleBot robots have a separate Motor-Power board which, in
conjunction with the microcontroller, provides power for motors as well as conditioned
power for the standard and accessory onboard electronics. It also contains buffered
pass-through connectors for the motor encoders. An optional power package
("computer ready") is available for the onboard computer system.
Figure 29. Pioneer 2 Motor-Power Board
User Power Connections
Table 23. User Power Connector J1
Pin # Connection
Pin # Connection
1
Vcc
7
Vcc
2
Gnd
8
Gnd
3
Vpp
9
Vpp
4
Vcc
10
Vcc
5
Gnd
11
Gnd
6
Vpp
12
Vpp
On the Motor-Power board, four sets of
unswitched battery (Vpp) and DC:DC-
conditioned 5 VDC (Vcc) power, with
power ground (Vpp), are available for
accessory and custom electronics on a
12-pin Molex-type latch-lock (100mm)
connector. Vcc gets shared with the
microcontroller and accessories con-
nected to that board (Appendix A).
The maximum Vcc power available
with standard robot models is 1.5A.
Onboard Computer Option
With the "computer-ready" option, the Motor-Power board is specially populated with
connectors and circuits to provide separate DC:DC conditioned, 7A @ 5 VDC power to
an onboard computer and its accessories. And, in conjunction with software, the circuit
provides for automatic, unattended, crash-less shutdown of the onboard computer,
either when manually powered down or when the battery voltage drops below 10 VDC.
Power Switch (J7) and Delayed Shutdown Logic
A simple SPDT switch controls logical power to the computer-power section of the Motor-
Power board. When ON, the switch provides Vpp to the input of a voltage comparator
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